National Australia Bank Rules Out Funding For Adani's Mining Project

Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Enterprises Ltd., speaks during an interview in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 31, 2011. Adani Enterprises Ltd., India's biggest coal importer, may sell shares in a unit that produces the fuel to international investors and use the proceeds to add energy assets. Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg via Getty Images

National Australia Bank (NAB) has joined the list of banks who've ruled out funding for Adani Group’s $12 billion mining project in the Carmichael mining project in Queensland.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported 2nd September that NAB was neither involved nor planned to be involved in any financing of the Carmichael coal mine, citing the bank’s spokesperson.

The other international banks who've withdrawn support include Adani’s former chief financier for Carmichael, Standard Chartered, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Earlier this week, Adani Mining also lost one of its two big external customers with Korean giant LG confirming it would not be purchasing coal from the Carmichael mine.

While not an immediate setback, NAB's withdrawal reflects the enormous negative publicity that organisation's fear from being associated with the Adani project.

On 12 August, Mint reported that Australia’s indigenous people Wangan and Jagalingou, traditional owners of the land proposed to host Adani Group’s mining project, will meet three top banks in their country to request them not to finance the Carmichael project.

The Wangan and Jagalingou were calling on the remaining three of Australia’s big four banks—NAB, Westpac Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ)—which have not ruled out funding, to confirm they will not support the Carmichael coal mine with finance.

Adani then told Reuters that the adverse ruling was due to a "technical legal vulnerability" that had arisen because certain documents were not presented by the environment department in finalising the approval.

Australia's environment ministry, which cleared the project, was pulled up by the court for not adequately considering the risks the project posed to certain aquatic life.

The environment ministry said on its website that it was reviewing the court's decision and would re-consider the project's future within "six to eight weeks."

The court ruling came on the back of a long campaign by environmentalists, led by Greenpeace, who claim that the coal-mining project put Australia's Great Barrier Reef under threat and especially endangered the yakka skink and ornamental snake.